Story updated at 1:26 p.m.
Broward College will soon launch a national search for its next president — ushering in another leadership transition in what has been a turbulent few months for the state college that enrolls more than 50,000 students.
The Broward College Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to hire the firm Myers McRae to launch a national presidential search. That’s after Acting President Barbara Bryan announced earlier this month that she will not be seeking an extension of her six month contract. Bryan’s last day is April 3.
Bryan was appointed to lead the school after the abrupt resignation of then-President Gregory Haile in October. She is the first woman to lead Broward College, where she spent nearly three decades in administration.
READ MORE: Broward College names first woman to lead school after top candidate withdraws
“I consider it an immense privilege to have served as the first female president of Broward College in its 65-year history,” Bryan said in a letter to the board. “It has been an honor, indeed; I will always be cheering for our beloved Broward College.”
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Optional extension turned down
While Bryan says she’s committed to working right up until her contract expires on April 3, she won’t be taking the optional six month extension that was part of her hiring agreement when she started the job back in October of 2023.
Initially, the Board of Trustees’s pick to be acting president at that time was Henry Mack III, a former chancellor in the Florida Department of Education under Gov. Ron DeSantis. But a day later, contract negotiations with Mack fell through, paving the way for Bryan’s appointment.
In recent weeks, the relationship between Bryan and the college’s board has been strained, with board members strongly criticizing Bryan and her staff for their management of the college’s finances, grants and contracts.
But at Tuesday’s board meeting, Chair Alexis Yarbrough praised Bryan for her service, crediting her with stepping up to lead during a time of uncertainty, for addressing a host of concerns identified by the college's accreditor, and for raising the alarm about what she says is a serious lack of oversight in the college’s grants department.
“Dr. Bryan came out of retirement to provide us with servant leadership at a time when we were in an emergency transition, I will call it. We were not planning to have a vacancy. And we are so grateful for you stepping up and answering the call,” Yarbrough said.
“Had we not had a diligent staff who lead with a servant's heart, we would not have been in a position to seek the best possible candidate, which we are able to do today,” Yarbrough added.
Top administrator will be the new acting president
When Bryan’s contract expires on April 3, Dr. Donald Astrab will step in as acting president while the school launches its national headhunt.
Astrab joined Broward College in 2014. He was recently named interim Chief Operating Officer and has served Florida’s community college system for more than 25 years, according to his biography. Astrab says he’s approaching retirement and has no interest in applying for the permanent job.
“It’s an honor. I’ll do everything I can to pull this into the gate,” Astrab said Tuesday. “I am just a stopgap. I’ll make that clear.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, the board agreed to some minimum requirements for prospective candidates to be the college’s next president — prioritizing applicants with higher ed experience but leaving the door open to those outside academia.
“A minimum of 15 or more years of successful senior-level administrative experience in higher education,” Yarbrough said, before adding some “softer language”.
“To soften that, indicate an equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered,” she said. “That way, to the extent that there is a CEO of a large company out there that does have higher ed, we don't want to exclude them.”
Those factors will set a baseline for the firm Myers McRae to work with the college to draft a job posting and begin the national search.
A 'difficult' time for college presidents
College leaders acknowledge it’s a challenging time to be recruiting for a job like this. That's as conservative politicians are increasingly being elevated over career academic leaders as the DeSantis administration seeks to reshape Florida’s higher ed landscape.
“Florida has had some difficulty in the last couple years in recruiting and hiring presidents for colleges and universities,” said Yarbrough, whose husband Shane Strum previously served as DeSantis’ chief of staff.
She noted the recent changes to the state law governing presidential searches, which now require much of the process to be conducted behind closed doors.
“Florida is a very unique landscape,” Yarbrough said. “One mistake will make us start the whole process over,” she added, referencing the troubled search process at nearby Florida Atlantic University.
As for outgoing President Bryan, she declined an interview request from WLRN, saying she wanted her written statement to speak for itself. But Bryan did say she’s excited to return to her work as an education consultant — and that she’s looking forward to having more time to go fishing.
A correction was made to a quote attributed to Alexis Yarbrough.
